Fake Viral News Stories That Everyone Fell For In 2015

December 2, 2015

When it comes to distinguishing what’s real and what’s not in the news, it can sometimes be a bit of a minefield. With blogs being incredibly easy to set up, everyone can turn into a journalist, reporting on ‘stories’ that just has no grounding in reality. While there are hundreds of fake viral news stories that broke in 2015 (see Snopes for a full list), here are a few that really caught people off guard:

Source: avclub.com

Claim: Leonardo DiCaprio’s character gets raped by a bear in The RevenantFALSE

When an early viewer of the hotly anticipated film The Revenant reported that Leo was raped by a bear – twice! – the internet went into overdrive. The story, from Drudge Report, said, “The bear flips Leo over and thrusts and thrusts during the explicit mauling.”

So, um, yeah. No wonder people are tipping Leo for his first ever Oscar. But, alas, not all is as it seems. Fox, the film’s studio, denied all the rumours. Fox told Entertainment Weekly in a statement:

“As anyone who has seen the movie can attest, the bear in the film is a female who attacks Hugh Glass because she feels he might be threatening her cubs. There is clearly no rape scene with a bear.”